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The challenges of recruiting and retaining

The current trend known as “the Big Quit” or “the Great Resignation” is expected to continue into 2022. In 2021, a monthly average of 3.95 million workers quit their jobs for various reasons as indicated by different reports and polls.

Joblist conducted a survey which indicated dissatisfaction with how their employer treated them during COVID19, low pay or benefits, and lack of work-life balance as reasons why employees quit their jobs, with a majority of remaining employees contemplating quitting as well. According to a report published by MIT Sloan School of Management, the “Great Resignation” is driven by five factors in addition to compensation: a toxic corporate culture, job insecurity and reorganization, high levels of innovation, failure to recognize employee performance, and poor response to COVID-19.

The Atlantic attributes some of the increased employee resignation rates to employees switching to better, higher-paying jobs and to older workers retiring instead of coming back when their businesses reopened after COVID lockdowns.

With 10.9 million job openings and more than 4.5 million new businesses registered in the first 10 months of 2021 (most of which are people working for themselves) employees have several options to find the pay, benefits, security, and/or work-life balance they want and need.

Employers who want to retain their current employees and attract quality new employees should take an honest assessment of their company and prioritize initiatives to address employee needs and concerns.

COVID-19 response: Employers should provide a safe and healthy workplace for all employees while also realizing everyone has been personally impacted by COVID-19 differently. Employees should feel protected at work and not be retaliated against or belittled for having concerns or taking measures they feel they need to protect themselves and their families.

What you can do: Follow expert guidance on current protocols.

Monitor positivity trends in your area and adjust as needed.

Understand your employees’ concerns and challenges, offering assistance and compassion when possible.

Insufficient pay or benefits: Employees are finding jobs with higher pay and better benefits and perks, usually in the same or similar industry utilizing their current job skills.

What you can do: Conduct an unbiased assessment of your compensation practices, comparing them to the current market for your size, area, and industry.

Offer affordable and valued insurance plans including the traditional health and dental insurance to more creative policies such as an EAP, pet health, or long-term care.

Consider offering perks employees will appreciate such as occasional catered meals, on-site services such as auto detailing and dry cleaning, and half-days.

Revise your paid time off policies to offer more days off, to be more flexible, or to be available sooner in an employee’s tenure.

Work-life balance: COVID magnified the often-conflicting demands employees face outside of work. When mandates first went into effect, companies needed employees to figure out how to work from home. After an adjustment period, employees realized that the once-accepted outlays

Q. We have a remote employee who works their required number of hours each day but usually outside of our normal work hours. They are often unavailable for calls or meetings with management or co-workers and even clients have expressed frustration with their unavailability. While we believe employees should have some flexibility in when they work each day, can we implement some structure even though they are not in an office?

A. Yes, you can require employees to be available during specific hours or for certain job functions such as client calls, company meetings, or to collaborate with co-workers. You can either set specific hours for everyone to match company or department “office” hours or you can create certain periods where every employee must be available. The latter works well when you have employees in different time zones where 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. for some employees may be 5 a.m. - 2 p.m. for others.

If an employee is not able to effectively perform their job duties because they are not available when needed, discuss expectations with the employee. If they continue to miss important meetings or calls, discipline them. If possible, you can even rescind the work-from-home option to ensure they meet their job demands.

If an employee expresses concerns with being available as needed due to other reasons such as medical or family issues, work with them if possible. Otherwise, you may need to review their job function to find a situation that works for everyone.

of working in-person, such as commute times and costs related to shift meals and maintaining professional dress, may not be necessary. Ongoing issues such as caring for sick or vulnerable family members, lacking reliable childcare, or having to stay home with a “pandemic pet” with separation anxiety make it impossible for some employees to come into the workplace regularly.

What you can do: Conduct an honest review of the business’ needs.

Demonstrate the value you have for your employees by respecting their priorities.

Let go of the “we’ve always done it this way” mentality and consider new, possibly untraditional, work arrangements which allow employees to fulfill their job duties while honoring their outside commitments.

Toxic culture: Companies are not immune to the realworld volatility many witness every day and see on the news and social media. Personal opinions on hot-button topics such as COVID-19 measures, racial inequity, social injustice, and political viewpoints may intentionally or inadvertently impact an employee’s experience at work.

What you can do: Treat employees fairly and consistently, especially if they have different opinions, backgrounds, or experiences.

Support every employee’s rights while consistently limiting contentious interactions.

Educate yourself, your managers, and all employees how to maintain a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace.

Draft, implement, and enforce policies strictly prohibiting discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, retaliation, bullying, and workplace violence.

Train supervisors to properly handle issues and to promptly investigate complaints.

Employee recognition: Employees leave over more than just compensation and benefits. They want to know that their contributions to the company are valued through positive interactions and recognition with their co-workers and management.

Employees who know they are valued and can be shown a long-term future with the company will be incentivized to stay, even when other factors aren’t optimum.

What you can do: Create an effective performance management system to consistently communicate positives and negatives to each employee.

Empower employees within their job function or crosstrain to help them develop new skills.

Conduct assessments to determine the behaviors, motivators, and workstyle of your high-potential employees.

Work with employees to create a job-development plan which fits their goals.

Implement an employee recognition program, whether it is as simple as an email to recognize someone’s efforts or as elaborate as a well-managed program with levels and rewards.

Paige McAllister, SPHR Affinity HR Group contact@affinityhrgroup.com

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Nation’s Best Adds Arizona’s Woodland Building Center

Nation’s Best, Dallas, Tx., has acquired Woodland Building Center in Springerville, Az.

“We are excited to welcome Woodland Building Center into the Nation’s Best family of businesses,” said Chris Miller, president and CEO of Nation’s Best. “Owners Bill Dutton and Frank Padilla have built the home center into a dominant regional player, and we look forward to building on that growth in the years to come.”

Opened in 1985, Woodland Building Center has built its reputation as a full-service and locally-focused dealer of hardlines and lumber and building materials. “With the support and expertise of Nation’s Best, our growth potential is enormous,” added Padilla. “Our entire team is enthusiastic about the opportunities to expand our reach and serve even more pro builders in the region.”

As part of Nation’s Best’s acquisition strategy, Woodland will maintain operations under its existing name with its key leadership team overseeing company operations alongside Nation’s Best, which will provide the strategic and financial support to drive optimal growth and profitability.

Nation’s Best is a member-owner of Do it Best Corp.

TAL Acquires Midway Chain

TAL Holdings, Vancouver, Wa., has purchased three-unit Washington dealer Midway Building Supply.

Established in 1958, Midway Building Supply operates yards in Tonasket, Oroville and Republic, Wa.

“We could not be more excited to welcome Midway Building Supply to our family of brands,” said Jason Blair, CEO of TAL Holdings. “Over the 64 years that Midway has been in business, they have continued to grow and support the communities they serve, fitting perfectly into TAL’s ‘helping build better communities’ model.”

Third-generation owner Chris Wood, who joined the family business in 1984 and has been in charge since 1988, will stay on in a leadership position.

After a transition period, Midway began operations as part of the TAL family on Feb. 28, maintaining its current name of Midway Building Supply.

“This is a great acquisition for TAL,” Blair said. “The Midway team is a perfect addition as we continue to expand our footprint in the Pacific Northwest and strengthen our commanding presence in the North Central Washington market.”

TAL Holdings now operates 19 locations in the Pacific Northwest, under such names as Badger Building Center, Bayview Building Supply of Elma, Browne’s Home Center, Gerretsen Building Supply, Lake Chelan Building Supply, Marson & Marson Lumber, Mount Vernon Building Center, and Tum-A-Lum Lumber.

ABC Supply Purchases Seattle Roofing Distributor

ABC Supply Co. has acquired the assets of roofing distributor Seattle Cedar Supply, Snohomish, Wa.

Founded in 2004, Seattle Cedar Supply “will enhance ABC Supply’s service in the Seattle metro area while building stronger relationships with contractors and builders in northern Washington.”

“The Seattle Cedar Supply team has built a great reputation among contractors in the Northwest as the go-to place for high-quality cedar shakes and shingles as well as metal and commercial roofing products,” said ABC regional VP Matt Cooper. “We welcome the Seattle Cedar Supply associates to the ABC Supply family, and we look forward to working together to support area contractors’ current needs while providing additional product offerings and services to help their businesses grow.”

Based in Beloit, Wi., ABC Supply operates more than 800 locations across the country.

NEWS Briefs

Werner Properties, operator of

Ace Hardware locations in Granite Bay, Midtown and Lake of the Pines, Ca., will construct a 14,000-sq. ft. store with adjacent 6,432-sq. ft. outdoor garden center in Roseville, Ca., for a mid-to-late 2023 opening.

The chain also plans a branch in East Sacramento, Ca.

Rocknak’s Hardware, Idaho

Falls, Id., this month is opening a sister store in Terreton, Id. Store manager Allen Newcomb will oversee the 8,500sq. ft. location, with grand opening festivities in the works for May 1.

Ace Hardware plans a new store for Boulder, Mt.

Virginia Hardwood Co.,

Azusa, Ca., is closing after 75 years.

J.H. Baxter, San Mateo, Ca., discontinued operations after 125 years effective Jan. 31 and has placed its Eugene, Or., treating plant up for sale.

Boise Cascade, Lathrop,

Ca., is now exclusive distributor of Trusscore PVC panels in Northern California and western Nevada. It’s the fourth Boise DC to carry the products.

Viewrail’s Flight floating stair system has become the first-ever floating stairs to receive an evaluation report from ICC Evaluation Service (ICC-ES).

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The former site of Allen’s Mill, Forks, WA., will again be home to an active lumber mill, following its purchase by Florida-based Spencer Forest Products.

Spencer paid $1.25 million for the facility, which was idled in 2015. Project manager Phil Johnson hopes to restart lumber production by late 2022, but not the former chipper/ trucking operations. Operating two shifts, the facility could employ about 100 people.

Lloyd Allen, who built the mill in 1955, died in 2012.

Steves & Sons Plans Utah Door Plant

Door manufacturer Steves & Sons, San Antonio, Tx., will expand its door manufacturing operations with a new Utah location, adding more than 200 jobs over the next five years.

The 160,000-sq. ft. facility in Brigham City, Ut., is Steves’ first west of the Rockies. The company currently operates interior and exterior door facilities in San Antonio, and interior door plants in Lebanon, Tn., and Richmond, Va.

“Brigham City was selected due to the availability of a quality workforce and its geographic location to better service our customers,” said VP Tres Steves. “Steves & Sons has made a significant commitment in being a state-of-theart, high volume residential interior molded door manufacturer at all of our plants, and our new Utah facility is scheduled to begin operation later this year.”

According to Scott Lovett, VP of operations, “With the opening of this new plant and equipment we have ready to install, we will be at the forefront of the industry technologically, enabling us to handle even greater production levels while remaining true to our high standards of quality, craftsmanship, and environmental responsibility.”

DOG DAYS: Lowe’s is teaming with Petco to experiment with “store-within-a-store” pet service centers offering mobile grooming and vet clinics for vaccinations, microchipping and pest prevention. The Lowe’s + Petco sections will cover about 1,100 sq. ft. in the seasonal zone in the front of each store. For the test, they will be staffed by Petco employees during peak hours.

Lowe’s Launches Loyalty Program

Lowe’s has introduced its MVPs Pro Rewards and Partnership Program for new and existing loyalty members.

Available nationwide on March 7, the program gives users additional benefits including: • Lowe’s e-gift cards earned when professionals spend instore and online on eligible purchases. • Access to business resources helping professionals tackle back-of-house operations. • Exclusive offers for rewards on eligible paint purchases and free select snacks or drinks at Lowe’s stores. • A chance to win prizes like Ford F-Series trucks and custom-built local advertising packages. • A mobile and online user experience allowing pros to track and claim rewards.

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